Monday, October 29, 2007

Somewhere on a parallel Earth...

...the "One More Day" arc featuring the Amazing Spider-Man was published, as originally scheduled, in weekly installments throughout the month of August 2007.

On that same earth, Allan Heinberg's "Who is Wonder Woman" and Kurt Busiek's "Camelot Falls" similarly achieved unbroken regular serialization.

On the other hand, Newsweek will have skipped its third week in a row, Time has missed more weeks than it has hit in 2007, and People and Us are in the midst of a month-long crossover. They sell in the tens of thousands, and they are only available at small shops called "news-stands". But I digress.

Unfortunately, I don't live on that earth. I have to buy comics on this one, where Marvel disguises a $1 price hike by hiding it in plain sight, in a "Still 395 cents" bullet-burst. Where the Marvel hype machine, with tongue in cheek, insists that "if you only read one comic this decade," it should be part two of a four-issue arc.

Where Joe Quesada can allow the flagship title of the Marvel Comics Group to drift so far off-schedule that these four "weekly" August issues are now "monthly" issues, barely expected to conclude the arc before the end of the year.

Assuming no additional delays.

I wonder how this story, on its completion (assuming it ever is completed, and with Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine on a year-plus delay, surely it is permissible to question it), will compare to the Spider-Man epic by Lee and Ditko that concluded in Spider-Man #33.

That only cost twelve cents.

That only took one issue to tell.

That was published on schedule.

That didn't bring in a deus-ex-machina new character, or have Peter threaten to sell his soul, to tie everything together neatly.

That also saw Spider-Man facing a lethal threat to both himself and Aunt May, one that was clearly far beyond his ability to overcome, yet overcome it he did, when all else failed him, with raw determination.

Boy, I tell you, they don't make comics like that anymore.

Except, maybe, on that parallel earth.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Shirtless Saturday - Johnny Storm

Today's entry is the classic cliffhanger from Fantastic Four #512, by the sorely missed Mark Wieringo.

What's worse, that Johnny Storm has managed to lose his pants, or that he's screaming about it at the top of his lungs while sitting in the kiddie pool?

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Shirtless Saturday - Conner & Cassie

Conner "the Clone of Steel" Kent and Cassie "Wonder Girl" Sandsmark play "what if this were the end of the world" in the barn in Teen Titans Annual #1. Of course, this being an "Infinite Crisis" tie-in, it doesn't end well, as after a good farm-cooked breakfast, Conner flies off to be killed by the villain now known simply as "Prime".

But at least he died... a Man. I guess.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Getting out from under

Has it struck anyone else as odd that the colorful star-spangled early-Silver Age Wonder Woman is being reprinted in the black-and-white Showcase format, where the Sekowsky-era "powerless" Diana Prince (best remembered in her signature white jumpsuit) gets a full color trade?

On the other hand, I just bought Showcase Presents Adam Strange because I'd given up on DC ever bringing out Adam Strange Archives Vol 3, and guess what they just solicited for March?

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Shirtless Saturday - Kara Zor-El

To initiate this feature, I chose the DC universe's favorite strumpet, Kara Zor-El, showing off her considerable underage charms to a Kandorian tattoo artist. From Supergirl #6.

In all seriousness, though, I do have two questions about this. Not "What were they thinking?" since I think we've established that they weren't thinking.

One: Does she still have it, or were the events of "Candor" retconned away in a flurry of alternate earths and timelines?

Two: Can someone with a better grasp of Kryptonian tell me what it said?

Thanks.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The Puzzle of the Fleshless Corpse

Has Faust been... eating Ralph Dibny?

(Does he taste rubbery?)

I haven't been following Black Adam, so I had no idea poor Ralph put in an appearance (sort-of) until Rachelle mentioned it over at Living Between Wednesdays. Neron apparently found a loophole in Ralph's dying binding spell (see 52), but Felix Faust is stuck in Doctor Fate's tower until he dies, or unless a God lets him out. (I wonder if Granny Goodness could do it.)

I suppose nobody knows Ralph is dead but Faust, Neron, and Adam. And who would they tell? The situation is likely to stay that way until a sufficiently high-level magic user tries to find him. You'd think someone would miss him.

If I was a betting man, I'd look for Ralph (and Sue) wherever Doctor Thirteen next appears. Of course, being a skeptic, he wouldn't be able to see them -- but I'll bet Tracy Thirteen could.

Maybe Ralph and Sue could partner with Boston Brand and open a detective agency in the Oblivion Bar.